The king has lost his precious Golden Bottle, and you have just the team of mercenaries to retrieve it for him! Start your quest at the inn with Rune Raiders, an easy to pick up but hard to put down turn-basedstrategy game by Retro64. What begins as a simple quest for a bottle turns into a fight for the kingdom. You have what it takes to defeat the Dark Master, right?

You start with three heroes for hire and just enough money to recruit them all. Once you've selected your team you'll head to the playing field, an area packed with rows of tiles. Use the arrow buttons on the bottom of the screen to move the entire group in that direction. You can also order them to stand in place, or drag and drop each character to change their formation. Step forward and you'll run into a wide variety of enemies, each with unique abilities that will slow you down and, well, try to kill you. Solution: kill them first!

Luckily each of your characters, none of whom would be out of place in a Saturday morning cartoon series, has unique abilities as well. There are heavy armor creatures, who like to be up front to take the damage. There are long distance attackers, who deal death from afar. Each one has a different attack range and damage. Many can be upgraded with special abilities such as knocking an attacker back, or crushing walls that hinder your progress. Upgrades are essential as they also provide longer attack range, better armor, and more attack power. The key is to get the right mix of abilites that will allow you to easily dispatch the enemies in your way.

After each move, if an enemy is in range, your heroes will attack. This is followed by an enemy attack. Click an enemy before moving close to check its attack range. Note also that every time you move forward, your team regains a bit of health, even if you are playing without a healer. Despite this, occasionally a hero will fall in battle. If you think you can live without her or him, carry on. If, however they are essential to you finishing the level, you can use your accumulated cash to ressurect the fallen. Each enemy you kill drops a sack of money. Make sure you click on them all so you have enough gold to fund your next expedition!

Rune Raiders is also available as an iOS download. The iOS version features two additional heroes and five more levels, but otherwise plays the same. Both include survival mode which doesn't involve gold. Just select your team and fight until everyone is dead. The humor in the game will have you smiling all the way through, and each hero has a distinct personality which adds to the overall charm of the game. The soundtrack, while well made, gets repetitive after awhile, as do the sound effects. If they start to bother you, you can turn one or both off in the options menu. It would be nice to have some input into which monsters you attack when multiple ones are in range, but the game usually does a good job of judging what should be hit. With three difficulty levels, Rune Raiders is a well made game, with solid strategy elements, which is sure to please.

Healing potions can be "carried" by dragging them up the screen with you. You can save potions for use later in the level using this trick, which is especially useful on boss levels.

The Tree's healing ability works even if you smash a block rather than killing an enemy. If your team is struggling, put him near some blocks for a free heal.

The bear can throw enemies into other things for bonus damage. If an enemy is thrown into another enemy, both take damage.

Similarly, if the bear throws an enemy into a teammate, both will take damage - avoid doing this!

The Ninja is perfect for taking out minotaurs, which can't attack behind them, and won't move unless a character is stood in front of them. Characters like the Bear and the Tree are able to withstand a minotaur attack without any difficulty, but be careful of attacking minotaurs with the bear - if his throw doesn't kill them, they may end up in line to charge into a teammate.

It's possible for Autumn's attack to knock enemies back, out of reach of the Ninja, because she attacks before Hwan. Keep her on a different side to the Ninja, or stand Hwan directly behind his targets to block knockbacks.

Getting a three star rating on a level requires you to complete it with no team deaths. Use characters with high armor, but keep the ninja at the back of the group, ready to leap forward and deal with minotaurs and small groups of enemies.

Character Guide

Note: listed stats are for max leveled characters.

Gruffle the Dwarf

Gruffle is a good starting character, but quickly becomes less useful due to his low stats and attack range. Early on, he's a good melee character to round out your group, but don't base your team around him.

Facing Intimidation: Double attack if more than one enemy is on adjacent tiles.

Money Cures Everything: $25 more money per kill

Coping With Criticism: 20% defense bonus against melee attacks

Sheen the Heroine

Sheen starts off with a strong, but limited attack directly ahead of her, and little armor. At max level it's a different story and she's a solid character throughout the game, with a powerful ranged attack that also triggers a knockback effect. However, Minotaurs remain deadly to her.

Flenta's ranged attacks initially work well for the team, but the damage increase as he levels up isn't enough to justify making him a permanent member of the squad. Although the game sometimes suggests putting him at the front, his armor is weak and it's likely he won't survive on the front line.

Explosive Arrowheads: 25% of damage from attacks to tiles adjacent to the enemy

Optimised Teamwork Targets: Improved range

Moonflower the Healer

The healer skips her turn if any character moves in that turn. She has very little armor and no form of attack, and in campaign mode this limits her usefulness significantly - you can't bring a character back from the front line to heal up during a battle, and she can't join in the fighting.

Kapalzor is good in levels where groups of enemies are hidden behind rows of bricks. His upgraded attacks don't do a huge amount of damage, but will hit every enemy in range - the problem is that his attack is quite difficult to line up with enemies as they move around. Using Pun Tree to smash clean thrugh bricks is a better option than trying to shoot around them.

Type: RangedRange: A hoop ahead of him.Damage: 35 to each enemy in rangeArmor: 30Recovery: 10Skills:

Remembering Tricks: Better attack

Aim-Improving Spectacles: 20% increase to attack

Armored Hearing Aid: 20% defense bonus

Learning New Tricks: Attack all targets in range in one turn

Inspiring anecdotes: Adjacent allies receive an 20% attack bonus. Also applied to his own attacks.

Stallona the Centaur

Stallona does more than three times the total damage of the Elf, and has far higher armor to boot. He's a pretty solid character all round, and good in boss fights.

Manly Self Sacrifice: If killed, the rest of the party's health is restored

Five Extra Workouts a Day: Longer range attacks

Manly Diet: 25% more recovery

Ten Extra Workouts a Day: More attacks per turn

Hwan the Ninja

The Ninja is the only character who can move anywhere on the board, aiming for sneak attacks on opponents further up the game area. Fully upgraded, he can attack twice per turn, and although his armor is very low, he can kill many enemies on one hit. He's especially useful for clearing out minotaurs, as they can't attack behind themselves, but most small groups of enemies can be dispatched by him with ease. His low armor means you shouldn't bring him to boss fights, however.

Svena is heavily armored and attacks a whole row of tiles across the screen.

Type: MeleeRange: Whole line of tiles horizontally across the screen.Damage: 24Armor: 240Speed: 2Skills:

Reinforced Turban: 20% armor bonus

Repeated Attack: Make two slicing passes at th enemy.

Sensible Profiteering: Earn $50 more per kill.

Crafty Approach: No turn counted for moves.

The Blade of Farsand: 20% attack bonus.

Whipman (iOS only)

The Whipman has the strongest armor in the game, making him near essential for boss battles, despite a difficult line of attack.

Type: MeleeRange: Ahead and to the rightDamage: 24Armor: 360Speed: 2Skills:

Leather Jacket: 20% armor bonus

Civilized Whip: Longer whip allows civilized lashing of enemies

Double Whip: Fire 2 shots per turn.

Archeology: Break open rocks in search of artifacts.

Tea Buzz: 20% attack bonus.

Amelia the Waitress

Amerlia shoots forks in all directions, making her a great character to use against groups of enemies. Her attacks continue until they hit something, so if only one enemy from a group is in range, she can still attack the entire group. Using this trick can allow you to pick off enemies from larger groups before getting in range of their attacks.

Pun Tree is a solid, high armor character with a healing ability and a strong attack . His range is limited, but the strength of his armor and an attack that hits up to 8 enemies simultaneously allows him to wade into groups of enemies. An upgraded Pun Tree is a great character to put in your party.

Wilt to Live: If an adjacent ally is killed, take their place and heal them at the same time

Fruits of Labor: Heal entire party for 33hp after every kill. This includes tile blocks!

Autumn the Forest Fairy

Autumn's ranged attack doesn't do much damage, but can hit all enemies in range, as well as sometimes triggering knockback. High armor means she's useful on most levels, including bosses, despite the low damage output.

A Bear is the tank of the game, with a huge amount of armor. His damage per hit is second only to the Ninja's, although even when fully upgraded, he can only attack the tile immediately ahead of himself. If the enemy has empty space to either side, A Bear will grab them and fling them in whichever direction has the most clear tiles - and should they crash into another enemy, both will take damage.

Minotaurs are a difficult enemy to deal with even late in the game due to their strength. They will charge forward and inflict heavy damage on any character within 3 tiles directly ahead of them. The Ninja is able to kill these in one hit, so use him to take them out before your party gets in range.

These bizarre enemies have a powerful attack that hits every tile around them, and so are best dealt with from range. Where that isn't possible, use characters with high armor that can withstand the damage they're capable of dealing.

Although not too powerful in their own right, mud golems can fire a concoction of mud over a character to hold them in place for a few turns. The mud stops the character from attacking and prevents you from manually moving them, but doesn't affect the dodge ability or a group move command.

Each Cyclopes has a high attack range and can do a lot of damage to characters with limited armor, making them one of the most dangerous ranged enemies in the game. On the other hand, against the bear or the tree, their attacks barely leave a scratch, and the Cyclopes' own armor is pitifully weak.

Bumblehawks are most dangerous because of their dodge ability, which allows them to hop out of the way of the first attack each turn. This renders your Ninja helpless against them. The Bear is able to grab Bubmlehawks, making their dodge useless.

Hydras are deadly enemies capable of attacking groups of characters for high damage. Attack from range or send strongly armored melee characters in for high impact attacks. Although the Ninja can deal with lone Hydras, a single hit from them will kill him, so it's best to keep him out of harm's way where more than one show up.

Don't be fooled by the relatively low stats: mummies are tricky enemies due to their ability to jump into the middle of your team and deal damage to everyone. One mummy by itself isn't much of a threat, but a group of them can wreak havoc.

Attack Range: Jumps one tile to land on a character and deal splash damage to nearby tiles.Damage: LowArmor: LowFirst Level Seen: 12

Spider

Although slow, spiders are strong, heavily armored, and leave a web on every square they move from. The web can entangle characters, stopping them from moving or attacking, and sometimes prevents collection of gold.

Any team member hit by attacks from this boss will target teammates on their next turn, which is usually deadly. There aren't many safe places to stand to avoid getting hit: See this screenshot for one safe formation. Note that where the red lines cross the edges or the corner of a tile, characters on that tile will still take damage.

Recommended party: Ranged characters. Stand them on safe tiles, and they won't take any damage all fight. Melee characters are unable to get close enough to the King to do any damage.

Witch

Her attacks are strong, and she'll take out even well armored characters with only a few attacks. Melee characters like the bear can deal plenty of damage to her, so go all out on the attack.

Recommended Party: Armored characters to soak up the damage. The bear is essential to win the battle quickly, before your party is worn down. You should find at least two health potions on your way to the boss fight; drag those up with you for some extra healing power should you need it.

Dark Lord

Expect to take a lot of damage in this battle. Not only does this boss have powerful attacks of his own, reapers will constantly appear to further drain health from your party. You should collect as many HP potions as possible in the lead up to the boss fight, because it's impossible to get through this one without taking damage.

Recommended Party: Only your best, most armored characters. iOS users have an advantage here as the two exclusive characters both have high armor, great for this battle. If the tree is in the party, stand him apart from the group, or else he'll absorb half their damage, and won't survive more than two rounds.

9 Comments

Healing potions can be "carried" by dragging them up the screen with you. You can save potions for use later in the level using this trick, which is especially useful on boss levels.

The Tree's healing ability works even if you smash a block rather than killing an enemy. If your team is struggling, put him near some blocks for a free heal.

The bear can throw enemies into other things for bonus damage. If an enemy is thrown into another enemy, both take damage.

Similarly, if the bear throws an enemy into a teammate, both will take damage - avoid doing this!

The Ninja is perfect for taking out minotaurs, which can't attack behind them, and won't move unless a character is stood in front of them. Characters like the Bear and the Tree are able to withstand a minotaur attack without any difficulty, but be careful of attacking minotaurs with the bear - if his throw doesn't kill them, they may end up in line to charge into a teammate.

It's possible for Autumn's attack to knock enemies back, out of reach of the Ninja, because she attacks before Hwan. Keep her on a different side to the Ninja, or stand Hwan directly behind his targets to block knockbacks.

Getting a three star rating on a level requires you to complete it with no team deaths. Use characters with high armor, but keep the ninja at the back of the group, ready to leap forward and deal with minotaurs and small groups of enemies.

Character Guide

Note: listed stats are for max leveled characters.

Gruffle the Dwarf

Gruffle is a good starting character, but quickly becomes less useful due to his low stats and attack range. Early on, he's a good melee character to round out your group, but don't base your team around him.

Facing Intimidation: Double attack if more than one enemy is on adjacent tiles.

Money Cures Everything: $25 more money per kill

Coping With Criticism: 20% defense bonus against melee attacks

Sheen the Heroine

Sheen starts off with a strong, but limited attack directly ahead of her, and little armor. At max level it's a different story and she's a solid character throughout the game, with a powerful ranged attack that also triggers a knockback effect. However, Minotaurs remain deadly to her.

Flenta's ranged attacks initially work well for the team, but the damage increase as he levels up isn't enough to justify making him a permanent member of the squad. Although the game sometimes suggests putting him at the front, his armor is weak and it's likely he won't survive on the front line.

Explosive Arrowheads: 25% of damage from attacks to tiles adjacent to the enemy

Optimised Teamwork Targets: Improved range

Moonflower the Healer

The healer skips her turn if any character moves in that turn. She has very little armor and no form of attack, and in campaign mode this limits her usefulness significantly - you can't bring a character back from the front line to heal up during a battle, and she can't join in the fighting.

Kapalzor is good in levels where groups of enemies are hidden behind rows of bricks. His upgraded attacks don't do a huge amount of damage, but will hit every enemy in range - the problem is that his attack is quite difficult to line up with enemies as they move around. Using Pun Tree to smash clean thrugh bricks is a better option than trying to shoot around them.

Type: RangedRange: A hoop ahead of him.Damage: 35 to each enemy in rangeArmor: 30Recovery: 10Skills:

Remembering Tricks: Better attack

Aim-Improving Spectacles: 20% increase to attack

Armored Hearing Aid: 20% defense bonus

Learning New Tricks: Attack all targets in range in one turn

Inspiring anecdotes: Adjacent allies receive an 20% attack bonus. Also applied to his own attacks.

Stallona the Centaur

Stallona does more than three times the total damage of the Elf, and has far higher armor to boot. He's a pretty solid character all round, and good in boss fights.

Manly Self Sacrifice: If killed, the rest of the party's health is restored

Five Extra Workouts a Day: Longer range attacks

Manly Diet: 25% more recovery

Ten Extra Workouts a Day: More attacks per turn

Hwan the Ninja

The Ninja is the only character who can move anywhere on the board, aiming for sneak attacks on opponents further up the game area. Fully upgraded, he can attack twice per turn, and although his armor is very low, he can kill many enemies on one hit. He's especially useful for clearing out minotaurs, as they can't attack behind themselves, but most small groups of enemies can be dispatched by him with ease. His low armor means you shouldn't bring him to boss fights, however.

Svena is heavily armored and attacks a whole row of tiles across the screen.

Type: MeleeRange: Whole line of tiles horizontally across the screen.Damage: 24Armor: 240Speed: 2Skills:

Reinforced Turban: 20% armor bonus

Repeated Attack: Make two slicing passes at th enemy.

Sensible Profiteering: Earn $50 more per kill.

Crafty Approach: No turn counted for moves.

The Blade of Farsand: 20% attack bonus.

Whipman (iOS only)

The Whipman has the strongest armor in the game, making him near essential for boss battles, despite a difficult line of attack.

Type: MeleeRange: Ahead and to the rightDamage: 24Armor: 360Speed: 2Skills:

Leather Jacket: 20% armor bonus

Civilized Whip: Longer whip allows civilized lashing of enemies

Double Whip: Fire 2 shots per turn.

Archeology: Break open rocks in search of artifacts.

Tea Buzz: 20% attack bonus.

Amelia the Waitress

Amerlia shoots forks in all directions, making her a great character to use against groups of enemies. Her attacks continue until they hit something, so if only one enemy from a group is in range, she can still attack the entire group. Using this trick can allow you to pick off enemies from larger groups before getting in range of their attacks.

Pun Tree is a solid, high armor character with a healing ability and a strong attack . His range is limited, but the strength of his armor and an attack that hits up to 8 enemies simultaneously allows him to wade into groups of enemies. An upgraded Pun Tree is a great character to put in your party.

Wilt to Live: If an adjacent ally is killed, take their place and heal them at the same time

Fruits of Labor: Heal entire party for 33hp after every kill. This includes tile blocks!

Autumn the Forest Fairy

Autumn's ranged attack doesn't do much damage, but can hit all enemies in range, as well as sometimes triggering knockback. High armor means she's useful on most levels, including bosses, despite the low damage output.

A Bear is the tank of the game, with a huge amount of armor. His damage per hit is second only to the Ninja's, although even when fully upgraded, he can only attack the tile immediately ahead of himself. If the enemy has empty space to either side, A Bear will grab them and fling them in whichever direction has the most clear tiles - and should they crash into another enemy, both will take damage.

Minotaurs are a difficult enemy to deal with even late in the game due to their strength. They will charge forward and inflict heavy damage on any character within 3 tiles directly ahead of them. The Ninja is able to kill these in one hit, so use him to take them out before your party gets in range.

These bizarre enemies have a powerful attack that hits every tile around them, and so are best dealt with from range. Where that isn't possible, use characters with high armor that can withstand the damage they're capable of dealing.

Although not too powerful in their own right, mud golems can fire a concoction of mud over a character to hold them in place for a few turns. The mud stops the character from attacking and prevents you from manually moving them, but doesn't affect the dodge ability or a group move command.

Each Cyclopes has a high attack range and can do a lot of damage to characters with limited armor, making them one of the most dangerous ranged enemies in the game. On the other hand, against the bear or the tree, their attacks barely leave a scratch, and the Cyclopes' own armor is pitifully weak.

Bumblehawks are most dangerous because of their dodge ability, which allows them to hop out of the way of the first attack each turn. This renders your Ninja helpless against them. The Bear is able to grab Bubmlehawks, making their dodge useless.

Hydras are deadly enemies capable of attacking groups of characters for high damage. Attack from range or send strongly armored melee characters in for high impact attacks. Although the Ninja can deal with lone Hydras, a single hit from them will kill him, so it's best to keep him out of harm's way where more than one show up.

Don't be fooled by the relatively low stats: mummies are tricky enemies due to their ability to jump into the middle of your team and deal damage to everyone. One mummy by itself isn't much of a threat, but a group of them can wreak havoc.

Attack Range: Jumps one tile to land on a character and deal splash damage to nearby tiles.Damage: LowArmor: LowFirst Level Seen: 12

Spider

Although slow, spiders are strong, heavily armored, and leave a web on every square they move from. The web can entangle characters, stopping them from moving or attacking, and sometimes prevents collection of gold.

Any team member hit by attacks from this boss will target teammates on their next turn, which is usually deadly. There aren't many safe places to stand to avoid getting hit: See this screenshot for one safe formation. Note that where the red lines cross the edges or the corner of a tile, characters on that tile will still take damage.

Recommended party: Ranged characters. Stand them on safe tiles, and they won't take any damage all fight. Melee characters are unable to get close enough to the King to do any damage.

Witch

Her attacks are strong, and she'll take out even well armored characters with only a few attacks. Melee characters like the bear can deal plenty of damage to her, so go all out on the attack.

Recommended Party: Armored characters to soak up the damage. The bear is essential to win the battle quickly, before your party is worn down. You should find at least two health potions on your way to the boss fight; drag those up with you for some extra healing power should you need it.

Dark Lord

Expect to take a lot of damage in this battle. Not only does this boss have powerful attacks of his own, reapers will constantly appear to further drain health from your party. You should collect as many HP potions as possible in the lead up to the boss fight, because it's impossible to get through this one without taking damage.

Recommended Party: Only your best, most armored characters. iOS users have an advantage here as the two exclusive characters both have high armor, great for this battle. If the tree is in the party, stand him apart from the group, or else he'll absorb half their damage, and won't survive more than two rounds.

This is a GREAT game! I gave it 5 *s, but then I noticed a problem.....

As you get more team members available, they're located off-screen to the right of the town. But there's no way to get over there. I can see a little bit of the Centaur's elbow, but that's the last new character I can click on.

WASD doesn't work, arrows don't do anything, & mousing over the edge doesn't work, either. So how can I get the new characters??

until Retro64 releases this game with a help file (or fixes the bug), I have to revoke 1 star.

although i found the design and graphics charming and the overall gameplay nice. it didnt thrill me. there wasnt enough of a challenge? perhaps an idea would be to go down the more puzzle route and in doing so, expanding the board so u travel both vertical and horizontal. discover treasures and such.

Played this the other day and gave up on it after the first boss. Not because it was hard, but because the boss attacked outside of its given attack area.

Well, that and the upgrade system, which would sometimes select an upgrade when I was just trying to preview what it was supposed to do, and some of the range upgrades didn't feel like upgrades at all but the descriptions were inadequate to the task of illustrating what the range changes would be.

I'm not sure if it's something wrong with my browser or the game, but gold doesn't seem to carry over from one level to the next. I've only made it to level 4 so far, but I never have more than 700 gold and can never hire more than the basic three characters. Oh, also I tried to go back and replay an earlier level and lost my progress :( Any idea what I'm doing wrong, or are these just problems with the game?

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